KTVU-TV Refuses to Identify Source of Racial Asiana Pilot-Name ‘Joke’

Fox affiliate KTVU, which misreported the Asiana Airlines crash pilots as a series of vulgar, culturally insensitive fake names last week, has yet to identify who at the station was responsible for them — or how the racist “joke” made it to air in the first place.

Numerous calls and emails to the station were not returned — including to its news director Lee Rosenthal, Vice President and General Manager Tom Raponi and Cox Media Group, which owns the station. A woman who identified herself as the receptionist said Rosenthal was the only person at KTVU who would speak to TheWrap about the matter, but that he was not in the newsroom Monday.

KTVU issued several apologies during its newscasts and on social media for the incident, saying the names were confirmed by the National Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB then released a statement saying that one of its summer interns merely confirmed the names, which originated from the station.

On Monday, Asiana Airlines told the Associated Press that it would sue KTVU for damaging its reputation by reporting that its plane, which crashed on the San Francisco International Airport runway, killing three, was piloted by “Captain Sum Ting Wong,” “Wi Tu Lo,” “Ho Lee Fuk” and “Bang Ding Ow.”